Norwalk police smash ATM bank card scam

Published 8:00 pm, Thursday, March 26, 2009

NORWALK

By JAMES S. WALKER

Hour Staff Writer

A man and a woman are behind bars today and being held on $1 million bond after they were arrested for an alleged ATM scam.

Victor Vasile Constantin, 23, of no known address, and Gina Gheorghe, 29, also of no known address, are also being held on an immigration detainer by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement after the pair of suspects were hit with a slew of criminal charges, according to Lt. Paul Resnick, a spokesman for the Norwalk Police Department.

Police said on Thursday evening Norwalk detectives working in conjunction with a detective assigned to the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force arrested the suspects who were caught red-handed in the act of skimming information from unsuspecting ATM customers, Resnick said.

According to Resnick, Norwalk police received information from Bank of America officials Thursday afternoon at 4:12 p.m. stating they were suspicious of fraudulent ATM activity. Bank officials reported they had found what appeared to be dried glue around the card slot of the ATM located in the rear vestibule of the branch located at 50 North Main St.

An officer responded, contacted bank personnel and inspected the ATM, confirming the presence of dried glue around the ATM's card slot.

The officer then contacted a detective assigned to the Connecticut Financial Crimes Task Force and opened an investigation.

Shortly after 6 p.m. on Thursday, Bank of America officials called police again reporting they had just observed a man and a woman enter the bank foyer and install a scanning device onto the front of the ATM, Resnick said.

Detectives from the police department responded to the area and set up a surveillance operation in conjunction with patrol officers, waiting for the suspects to return and remove the now information-laden device.

Detectives obtained a description of the suspects and contacted a detective with the Connecticut Financial Crime Task Force, who also responded to the bank.

At approximately 7:30 p.m., the suspects were spotted in the parking lot to the rear of the bank. Detectives moved in and arrested Constantin and Gheorghe, who had just removed the ATM scanning device and a separate pinhole video camera, Resnick said.

They were each charged with unlawful use of a scanning device, third-degree identity theft, conspiracy and fraudulent use of an ATM.

Bail was set at $1 million each, and they were arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court Friday. They are set to appear back in court on April 3.

Constantin and Gheorghe are also suspects in a similar incident that happened at a Bank of America location in Greenwich on March 19.

The police spokesman said the camera was mounted above the keypad and was used to watch bank customers enter their PIN number while the scanning device captured the information from the magnetic strip on the back of the ATM card. The devices are later retrieved, and the information is used to make duplicate forged ATM cards. The forged ATM cards are then used to illegally obtain money from ATM's from the unsuspecting customer's bank accounts.

Also recovered from the suspects and held as evidence was a spackle knife, an exacto knife, a Swiss army knife, a bottle of clear glue and four cell phones.

Resnick said police believe the glue was used to secure the scanning device in place while the knives were used to remove the scanning device after it has collected the required data. The investigation is continuing.